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PODCAST

Talking Talmud

Yardaena Osband & Anne Gordon

Learning the daf? We have something for you to think about. Not learning the daf? We have something for you to think about! (Along with a taste of the daf...) Join the conversation with us!

religion & spirituality judaism

All Episodes

00:18:24

Avodah Zarah 57: When Intent Doesn't Matter

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/14

Several stories - indicating that the concern about libation wine was real for them. For example, a person's lulav touching his wine. Or the extreme case of an infant touching the wine (as an example of intent not being the more key element here in declaring wine for libations. Plus, conversions with circumcision and dunking in a mikveh. Plus, the impurity factor, given that status. Note the stringency here, especially given the biblical prohibition. Also, a greater concern that converts who

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00:11:54

Avodah Zarah 56: You Can't Make a Libation with Your...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/13

First, why "libation wine" is a topic that draws so much attention. Wine cannot become "libation" wine until it goes into the cistern - is it fully processed then? That is a matter of dispute. Also, a 6-year-old child who was an outstanding scholar of this very tractate - Avodah Zarah. He was able to field serious questions about Jews and non-Jews working together to tread on grapes to make wine. Plus, long-term deliberations over concerns about wine, without real worrying about

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00:14:59

Avodah Zarah 55: Suffering Personified

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/12

Agrippas, the Roman general, asked Rabban Gamliel (paraphrase): Your God is a jealous God, but people are only jealous of those who are in real competition, so how can He be jealous of idols, which are fundamentally nothing? Plus, an example of a man who takes a second wife, and when that will make the first wife feel bad (in analogy to God vs. idolatry). Also, a challenge from people who are seemingly healed by idols. Plus, the perfect timing of suffering that can then confuse bystanders. Also, a

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00:12:21

Avodah Zarah 54: God Doesn't Interfere

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/11

R. Dimi came from the land of Israel to Babylonia and taught how the land itself isn't rendered prohibited by virtue of people bowing down, but working/digging, etc. just might. The same for other items too. What about exchanging one thing for the thing that was worshipped? Still a problem, but the exchange of an exchange is a machloket. NOTE: A switch to discussion of libations and Aggadah in the mishnah (unusual, as we know). Does God really mind idolatry? He allows it, after all.... Also, a

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00:16:05

Avodah Zarah 53: When an Object of Idolatry Can Be...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/10

Several mishnayot - beginning with nullifying an idol (on the bottom of the previous daf). Note that a non-Jew nullifies the idol, not a Jew, and only a non-Jew who owns at least part of the idol. Acting in excruciatingly, disrespectful ways before the idol will not nullify it. Also, the idols that were in the land when Joshua conquered it, and the tolerance for idolatrous practice that they Jews were willing to entertain during the sin of the Golden Calf. Also, an object of idolatry that was set

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00:19:58

Avodah Zarah 52: "Onias Worship": Not Idolatry, But...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/08

A dispute on the prohibition of the idol when it's owned by a Jew vs. owned by non-Jew (Rabbi Akiva vs. Rabbi Yishmael). Also, vessels that were used in the "Temple of Onias" -- "chonyo," outside of the Temple, once it had been built. [Note: Historically, the specific temple of Onias was a center of worship for Egyptian Judaism.] Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi forgot (!) the verse from which the external worship was prohibited -- and then he was reminded of it by Rabbi Yosi bar Shaul

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00:21:25

Avodah Zarah 51: Not the Way It Was Done in the Temple

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/08

An idolatry that is served by using a stick, or breaking the stick, in front of an idol, the stick is then prohibited from use. If the stick were thrown, the (Jewish) person is still liable for idolatry, but the stick would not be prohibited for use. The issue may well be whether the practice itself were in use in the service in the Temple, and then recast for idolatry. Which raises a question about the rocks that were thrown in service of Mercury. Also, 2 mishnayot! On the worship on

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00:17:21

Avodah Zarah 50: Not a Carpenter, Nor the Son of a...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/07

More on the Mercury idol - including stones that were removed from the idol, and were then prohibited. Plus, other idolatries -- more than one that compares the practices of idolatry with the dead, where benefit is prohibited. But stones weren't the Jewish approach in worship, so perhaps it shouldn't be a problem of benefit. Plus, a beraita that was too difficult to unpack -- with the claim that they needed a carpenter, the son of a carpenter to resolve it. Also, another beraita that needed

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00:22:45

Avodah Zarah 49: No Financial Redemption for Idolatry

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/06

Rabbi Yosi vs. the Rabbis - on a field that was fertilized by the manure of idolatry, or the like, and how that field can be planted, and what terms are required for that to happen. Plus, the potential ramifications of their same logic on leavened dough. When the problematic item that is prohibited from benefit, can it be redeemed for money, and then destroy those coins in the Dead Sea? The rabbis say that there's no financial redemption for idolatry. Also, several new mishnayot: One who takes

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00:13:20

Avodah Zarah 48: The Asherah

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/05

A daf of 4 mishnayot! (1) 3 different kinds of trees and how they might have been used for idolatrous purposes, and whether they are permitted afterwards. (2) What is an "asherah"? Different views. (3) On using the shade from the idolatrous tree. (4) Planting vegetables under the asherah tree - in the winter or summer, when is it permitted or prohibited?

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00:18:59

Avodah Zarah 47: A Lulav, a Rock, and the Privacy of...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/04

Resh Lakish poses a question: What happens to a lulav - a palm branch - from a tree that has been worshipped? That is, in the event that it was planted to begin with in the name of idolatry. Does the use for a mitzvah make it more likely to be permitted? More likely to be forbidden? What about for regular use? Rav Dimi has a different understanding by which to answer Resh Lakish -- consider a tree that was planted for idolatry, and then that status was revoked. Now what, when it comes to mitzvot

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00:19:41

Avodah Zarah 46: Attached to the Ground

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/01

More on the hills and mountains and rocks - where they are being worshipped by a non-Jew, that is, the boulders that separate from a rocky mountain. Is that boulder like the mountain which isn't prohibited from benefit, or is it like the object of idolatrous worship? Usually, human engagement is necessary to make the object of idolatry prohibited. With a comparison to an animal -- including one that is blemished, as a parallel to the boulder. Also, the factor of being attached the ground - to

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00:13:50

Avodah Zarah 45: Mountains, Hills, and the Leafy...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/01

A new mishnah! Things in the natural world that were worshipped - and whether that worship made them prohibited for benefit. For the most part, the hills and so on are permitted - the worship doesn't change them, but the obligation to destroy the idolatry itself kicks in. Adornment in the name of idolatry would be different - and prohibited. Also, a redundancy in the Torah: a prohibition against trees that are forbidden because they have been worshipped - and then another verse prohibited

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00:18:28

Avodah Zarah 44: The Bathhouse of Aphrodite

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/01

2 new mishnayot! First, an alternative to taking a graven image to the Dead Sea - grind it off (but then the leavings become fertilizer, which would be getting benefit from it). With a parallel to improper use of that which had been consecrated, including that which emptied into the Kidron Valley (a story of King Asa), where fertilizer was less in use... Also, the story of Rabban Gamliel and the rebuke that comes his way for being in the bathhouse of Aphrodite (he has several defenses).

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00:24:34

Avodah Zarah 43: Here There Be Dragons

Talking Talmud ·

2025/08/01

What is the figure of a dragon that is prohibited? One descriptor is scales between the joints, and that is determined to be the halakhah. Also, the story how Rabbi Elazar ben HaKappar found a ring on the road with the depiction of a dragon and he insisted that an adult non-Jew nullify the idolatrous status of it -- with 3 laws being learned from his behavior. Plus, the fact that the change of status of any item when it is saved from wild animals or a destructive river, or so on -- so why did he

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00:13:17

Avodah Zarah 42: The Destructive Power of the Dead Sea

Talking Talmud ·

2025/07/30

More on finding shards, and the problematic nature of tangible hands, feet, etc., when found. But why are those tangible imagery forbidden? The idol has been destroyed! Also, the possibility of revoking the idolatrous status, and rendering it permitted for use altogether - how actively, physically must that be done? Or does it have happen on its own, without your intervention? Also, a new mishnah! Certain figures that are considered idolatrous and need to be fully "erased" - at the Dead

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00:14:02

Avodah Zarah 41: Idols, Graven Images, and Worshipped...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/07/29

A Jew cannot benefit from an object that's been used for idolatry, of course, but that extends to images too. Though the majority view maintains that images are not a problem. Also, broken shards may well be permitted - for use, benefit, and so on. But what if they were the object of idol worship? And what if the shards have the image of a hand or a foot or attached to a pedestal on which the idol stood?

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00:18:32

Avodah Zarah 40: Permitted Foods, from Fish to Apple...

Talking Talmud ·

2025/07/28

A new mishnah! (from the previous daf) Permitted foods, for a change, including milk that was milked by a non-Jew, who was watched by a Jew, and certain fishes, and more. Plus, a deep dive into fish and roe (fish eggs), vs. other seafood, which birth their young (and are not kosher). But some non-kosher fish also lay eggs. Also, the need for experts who were able to determine whether a given fish and its roe were kosher or not. Plus, a story about Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, his stomach ache, and its cure

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00:22:50

Avodah Zarah 39: Gone Fishing

Talking Talmud ·

2025/07/27

Several kinds of fishes that are prohibited to be eaten. And several that are permitted, including contingent only on where they come from (depending on where that is and whether non-kosher fish are caught together with the kosher ones). Plus, the question of a fish that will eventually get scales, but doesn't have them now, or did have them, but lost them before now - those are all considered kosher too. Also, the story o a sliver of "hiltit," with concern or the knife, if it has

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00:18:22

Avodah Zarah 37: The Not-So-Permissive Court

Talking Talmud ·

2025/07/27

Note: Previously labeled Daf 37, "A King's Table," was really the Daf 38 episode, sadly on account of human error. This episode the real Daf 37, "The Not-So-Permissive Court."[Who's Who: Rabbi Yehudah Nesiah, not to be confused with Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi] With a case in his name - regarding the discussion of oil that originates with non-Jews, and when that was then permitted for use by Jews, and a question about permitting the bread of non-Jews. But the sages were

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